Have some questions about pixelation on HD

[lilexecutioner]

Hey, Guys I just switched from DTV back to Dish after 2 years, mostly for price. I had a very pristine picture on my 4k TV even though i was just getting 1080 or 720P from DTV. Now with Dish I have the hopper 2 and I'm watching the MTV video awards and it looks so compressed, I noticed this on other channels and tried to just ignore it but this is bad. It's the same on my other hopper as well. Is Dish's stream that much more compressed? I don't remember it being this bad. Is there anything that I can do to help the quality any?

 

[Tampa8]

What do you see that causes you to say it looks compressed. Make sure the Hopper is set to 1080I and that you are using an HDMI or Component (not composite) connection. Also make sure you are watching an HD channel. Check that neither the TV or the Receiver is set to zoom. If everything is set up correctly then likely you are getting the correct picture. I see Charter and Brighthouse TV all the time at friend's houses and DISH overall is right there with them if not better, with just an exception here and there that applies to all of them. Not side by side but over all these years I see Directv and like most posters feel they are very close in PQ. Even if some feel Directv is better generally they will say not by all that much.You originally posted you might have to switch back, if it isn't looking good to you and you can switch back that easily maybe just do that? But make sure everything is as it should be.

 

[Tampa8]

All my tuners were tied up but I watched the last 1/2 or so of the awards on both VH1 and MTV. I saw no pixelation, the picture looked good. If there was a problem maybe it cleared up?

 

[jerryez]

I find than an NFL football game is the best picture to test the quality of your signal. Look at the numbers on the jerseys, when the ball is snapped. ON a good HD picture, you can read the numbers. Also, look at the grass(on the outdoor fields), you can see the blades of grass in the close up shots. I have Dish and that picture last night on CBS was beautiful. I also notice on talk shows that the hosts faces are blurred out purposely to hid what they really look like in HD.

 

[Tampa8]

Looks like hit and run post? From time to time, not so much recently you can see some pixelation especially in dark areas. I have seen it come and go over a short period of time for whatever reasons. But on the whole I don't see it and most definitely not last night I was looking even more closely after the post.

 

[lilexecutioner]

Hey guys, I did check to see if zoom was on and it was not. I do have the hopper set to 1080i and I have an expensive HDMI cable in place from the hopper to the TV. I tried to take a picture to kind of give you an idea of what's going on. I just continuously see artifacts, I don't remember the picture being like this on dish when I had them in the past, I would see it a bit on DTV but nothing to this extent. Am I just going crazy here? I know my dish is on the eastern arc I'm wondering if the signal is not very good. Does anyone know what dish and transponder i should check and see if we can get numbers and see if that's the cause?

 

[Tampa8]

Signal strength plays no part so need to worry about that. I see what you are seeing in those pictures. Especially the first doesn't even look like HD. Just confirming those are satellite channels, not OTA and are locals or not? The only way I see that especially in the faces is if I am right up to the TV, even then not as bad as your picture.

 

[lilexecutioner]

I always make sure I go for the HD channel, no OTA here. It's pretty bad I'm watching NATGEO Wild in HD right now and the picture is quite bad, I can certainly expect this from SD but not HD channels. The pictures were taken from satellite channels and the one with the driver was from the NASCAR channel

 

[Tampa8]

None of us are seeing that, obviously we wouldn't keep with DISH if the picture looked like what I see in the pictures you posted all the time. I don't have Natgeow but I just checked Natgeo and the channel I am presently watching and I can be arms length from the TV and there is no where near the smearing in your pics - in fact virtually none. I don't know what if anything in the set-up would cause that. Perhaps others familiar with a Hopper install have ideas.

 

[lilexecutioner]

Ok I thought I was crazy, could this be a faulty hopper?

 

[HobbyTalk]

Did you actually look to see what resolution your TV is in?

 

[Tampa8]

Ok I thought I was crazy, could this be a faulty hopper?

I wouldn't want to steer you wrong, it could be of course but may not be my first guess.

 

[Tampa8]

Did you actually look to see what resolution your TV is in?

Good thought - you should hit info or whatever brings up what the resolution is of the signal you are getting on the TV. I would also try toggling on the Hopper - go to 480I go to a channel, then go back to 1080I maybe it isn't really in 1080I. (That actually was a problem sometimes with VIP receivers - toggling fixed it)

 

[lilexecutioner]

Did you actually look to see what resolution your TV is in?

I checked it and it says 16:9 1080i

It's a 4k TV and when I use anything other than dish it looks amazing. I just can't get why it doesn't look good

 

[lilexecutioner]

Good thought - you should hit info or whatever brings up what the resolution is of the signal you are getting on the TV. I would also try toggling on the Hopper - go to 480I go to a channel, then go back to 1080I maybe it isn't really in 1080I. (That actually was a problem sometimes with VIP receivers - toggling fixed it)

I changed it to 480i, the tv even said the signal was 480i toggled it back and it's still the same. (While in 480i it look worse which is expected.)

 

[simplexswrhs90]

Hey guys, I did check to see if zoom was on and it was not. I do have the hopper set to 1080i and I have an expensive HDMI cable in place from the hopper to the TV. I tried to take a picture to kind of give you an idea of what's going on. I just continuously see artifacts, I don't remember the picture being like this on dish when I had them in the past, I would see it a bit on DTV but nothing to this extent. Am I just going crazy here? I know my dish is on the eastern arc I'm wondering if the signal is not very good. Does anyone know what dish and transponder i should check and see if we can get numbers and see if that's the cause?

Try turning the sharpness down in your TV's picture settings. I find the picture on our Vizio and Toshiba look better with it turned down. When sharpness is down, the picture looks closer to real life, because in real life there is no edge enhancement, and the noise artifacts, that increasing sharpness introduces. It looks more natural without all those artifacts, which really stand out during fast moving images. A good HD picture doesn't need artificial outlines added to the image.

 

[lilexecutioner]

Try turning the sharpness down in your TV's picture settings. I find the picture on our Vizio and Toshiba look better with it turned down. When sharpness is down, the picture looks closer to real life, because in real life there is no edge enhancement, and the noise artifacts, that increasing sharpness introduces. It looks more natural without all those artifacts, which really stand out during fast moving images. A good HD picture doesn't need artificial outlines added to the image.

I went in and lowered it from 25 where it was, own to 20, 15, 10 and it had a very small change in smoothing it out. But when someone moves it blurs. I have an LG 4k, not sure if anyone knows if there is an issue with the brand?

 

[simplexswrhs90]

I went in and lowered it from 25 where it was, own to 20, 15, 10 and it had a very small change in smoothing it out. But when someone moves it blurs. I have an LG 4k, not sure if anyone knows if there is an issue with the brand?

That is interesting. Our Vizio's sharpness is at 0 and there is no blurring. Also our Toshiba's settings are about as low as they can go and no blur on them. It may just depend on the TV brand or model.

 

[bmetelsky]

I have an LG 4k, not sure if anyone knows if there is an issue with the brand?

I have an LG 4k with DISH, using the Hopper 3, and the picture is amazing. I use the factory tv settings, haven't changed anything, just plug and play.

 

[HobbyTalk]

A lot of people make the mistake of using the "vivid" setting, that turns a lot of the "enhancements" up. Try some other built in setting like movie instead.